Militant ruling-party supporters armed with clubs, stones and axes on Friday attacked people at a meeting called by Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, the party said in a statement. Tsvangirai escaped uninjured, but other supporters of his party received ”serious injuries”.
The South African Human Rights Commission has subpoenaed Limpopo’s provincial minister of housing, Mahwene Semenya, and Lepelle Nkumpi’s municipal manager over the eviction in May of more than 200 families from Lebowakgomo. It is alleged the families were not given adequate sewage and water facilities at their new homes.
The third assembly of African Union heads of state and government in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, next week will have to pay serious attention to providing funds to enable the AU to function as it should, South African President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday in his weekly online newsletter, ANC Today.
London’s Westminster Council has thrown out a proposal to erect a statue of Nelson Mandela on Trafalgar Square, saying the 3m would be more appropriately placed outside the nearby South Africa House. So many e-mails were sent to the committee in support of the proposal that the council’s computer system crashed.
The wife of Malan Moyo, one of the South Africans among the 70 suspected mercenaries being detained in Zimbabwe, died in Phalaborwa on Wednesday, a KwaZulu-Natal radio station reported on Friday. Moyo’s daughter said that they have been battling to get word of her mother’s death to her father.
Microsoft has slashed its prices for Paris City Hall by more than half as the French capital prepares for a major computer systems upgrade and weighs a possible switch to free open source software. ”Microsoft has agreed to cut its prices to the suppliers who work with us,” a Paris official said on Thursday.
More than 250 000 people marched through the sweltering streets of Hong Kong yesterday in a pro-democracy demonstration which will have embarrassed the communist mainland government on the anniversary of the territory’s handover from British rule.
Israel’s security establishment is quietly congratulating itself on breaking the back of Palestinian ”terror networks”, months after driving the leaders of Hamas and its smaller allies underground or killing them. The army and intelligence chiefs have proclaimed a dramatic fall in the number of suicide bombings during the first half of this year, down by 75% on the same period a year ago.
The Netherlands has banned the use of emblems involving windmills, tulips and clogs in favour of a more modern image as it takes over the European Union’s helm for the next six months. By avoiding such traditional symbols, it hopes to make the EU more relevant to millions of disenchanted citizens.
A weakening rand lifted the JSE Securities Exchange South Africa off its lows on Friday, although the bourse remained in the red in noon trade. Dealers said that the bourse had initially taken its cue from world markets, but the currency was now
providing some support.